WARSAW – Warsaw senior standout Ellis Coon has been named to the Indiana high school All-Star cross country team.

The All-Star squad will compete on Saturday, Nov. 16 at the annual Mid-East Cross Country Championships in Kettering, Ohio.

Coon, coming off a third-place finish at last weekend’s IHSAA state finals, will lead the 12-runner Hoosier boys squad.

Much like the Indiana-Kentucky All-Star basketball series, the Mid-East Meet brings together top senior athletes from four states for a unique state vs. state competition.

Runners from Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois will gather at Indian Riffle Park, near Dayton, for the contest which begins at 11 a.m. (EST).

Head coach Jay White, from Portage, announced the team Thursday. The Indiana Association of Track & Cross Country Coaches (IATCCC) sponsors the squad.

Coon won sectional and regional titles at Culver Academies, then nipped  Anthony Didion of LaPorte, to win the New Prairie semistate.

Didion is also a member of the Hoosier boys team. He finished fourth, a step or two behind Coon, at the state finals.

Coon, who led coach Jim Mills’  Warsaw team to conference, sectional and regional championships this fall, has made a verbal commitment to run collegiately at Temple.

Senior Blake O’Dell of Northridge is also a member of the boys’ team.  O’Dell won a sectional title at Elkhart and was 15th at the State Finals. Senior Anna Bearss of Rochester, who started her high school cross country career at Warsaw, was named to the girls’ team. Bearss placed 20th at the State Finals.

Last year, Indiana won the girls Mid-East championship easily, while Michigan took the boys Mid-East title in an extremely close race. Only six points separated the top three teams.

INDIANA ALL-STAR BOYS  CROSS COUNTRY TEAM
Ellis Coon (Warsaw), Anthony Didion (LaPorte), Clayton Bowie (Southport), Brian Blaylock (Lowell), Blake O’Dell (Northridge), Kyle Burks (Bloomington South), Colin Rinne (Westfield), Andrew Staggs (South Knox), Andy Timmons (South Bend Adams), Jake Hanawalt (Lawrence North), Isaiah White (Perry Meridian), James Huffman (Indianapolis North Central).

INDIANA ALL-STAR GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY TEAM 
Elena Lancioni (LaPorte), Abigail Hostetler (Fremont), Jessica King (Hamilton Southeastern), Sarah Billingsley (Oldenburg Academy), Anna Bearss (Rochester), Alex Warzyniak (Bloomington South), Rachel Thompson (New Prairie), Kate Raphael (Bloomington North), Shannon Effron (Evansville Reitz), Karli Koning (Westfield), Becca Uebele (Zionsville), Danielle Muse (Whiteland).

 

HEAD COACH: Jay White (Portage)
ASS’T. COACHES: Rob Abraham (Brown County), Keith Iddings (Crown Pt.), Terry Lakes (Marion), Ricke Stucker (Kokomo).